Last week on AEW Dynamite Powerhouse Hobbs made his return to AEW tag teaming with Will Ospreay against Ricochet and Konosuke Takeshita.
Hobbs had been gone since April 24, 2024 when he faced Jon Moxley for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and was injured in the match. Hobbs was the second name I listed in the Ghosts of AEW where I discussed wrestlers who had been gone from AEW from months (and in some cases years) and if they belong in the current AEW.
You can read the article (it’s okay I’ll wait… okay great thanks) where I say that Hobbs has a place in All Elite Wrestling today but it’s time for the company to understand his place is as a tag team wrestler instead of a singles wrestler. Him returning as a tag partner to Ospreay gives me hope that AEW also realizes the best way to utilize Hobbs.
Hobbs had a great return in the match and despite being in the ring with some heavy hitters in terms of high work level he didn’t look out of place. I’ve brought up in the past in his matches teaming with Kyle Fletcher and Hook that Powerhouse Hobbs shows his best ability as a tag team wrestler. He can focus on the best of his offence, tag out so he isn’t spending too much time selling, and conserve his energy when a match goes beyond the 10 minute mark.
Will Power
Will Hobbs is a diamond in the rough. I just see future world champion every time I see what he can do in the ring.
— GrapPro – Aaron Wrotkowski (@AaronWrotkowski) July 29, 2020
I’ve been a fan of Will Hobbs since his beginning in AEW. Back in July of 2020 I was singing his praises from his performances on AEW Dark. His first match in AEW was being squashed by Orange Cassidy. I don’t know if All Elite Wrestling was trying to test him but they had him against smaller wrestlers and saw if he could bump against them. OC, Dark Order, Ricky Starks, and Scorpio Sky all wrestled Hobbs in short matches and got to look strong against him. We then got Hobbs losing what was essentially a squash against Darby Allin where Darby got to show his strength against him.
A month after that Darby match we had Will Hobbs in the 21 Man Casino Battle Royale at All Out 2020 where he eliminated The Blade and stuck until the final six. One week later Jon Moxley was coming to the ring with Will Hobbs as his backup.
Hobbs would soon turn heel to join Team Taz and has been switched from babyface to heel to babyface, has worked in tags and singles, and has one TNT Championship run to his name, which has been unfortunately forgettable back in 2023. It was essentially just a break from Wardlow for a month, though we at least got the match against Fenix at St. Patrick’s Day Slam 2022 which was excellent.
Fire And Ice
Wardlow and Hobbs as a tag team after the Owen tournament. It's time. Honestly it's overdue at this point. pic.twitter.com/MrC2WT8Xt3
— GrapPro – Aaron Wrotkowski (@AaronWrotkowski) June 18, 2023
It’s good to bring up Wardlow because as you read in Ghosts of AEW, I have been pushing a long time for Wardlow to team with Hobbs. For some this is Fire And Ice from World Championship Wrestling (Ice Train and Scott Norton) and I understand the comparison.
Ice Train is absolutely one of those guys who you watch from back in the 1990s and wonder why he wasn’t a bigger star. Fire And Ice was only a tag team for a dozen matches in 1996 and never even had a WCW World Tag Team Championship shot. But watching this match? You can see why they were so memorable and why people see the same from Wardlow and Hobbs.
I have long had a theory that when promoters see a guy like Hobbs or Wardlow they see a guy at six foot plus with at least 240lbs of muscle and think that’s a guy who should be heavyweight champion. They see the size and they think that’s a guy who can carry a company. But that’s not pro wrestling in the 21st century.
When I’ve seen wrestlers in the past 20 years pushed hard and never accomplished their potential, guys like Krimson, guys like Matt Morgan, guys like Killer Kross, guys like Donovan Dijak? I see a misunderstanding of who they are and what’s the best way to use them. It makes me think of what promoters would say if you brought Road Warrior Hawk from the 80s to today. Everyone would try to push him as a singles champion. He isn’t meant for it. He’s meant to be a tag wrestler.
AEW has a lot of these kind of wrestlers and it’s time they find their place. It’s time to build Road Warriors.
Building Road Warriors
AEW once figured this out last year with Big Bill and Brian Cage when they randomly put them together and they had instant chemistry, catching fire with the crowd. AEW of course split them up for no good reason. They’ve recently put Cage now with Lance Archer, and while it’s good it isn’t what could have been with Big Bill. It’s still the right direction and they have good potential, and I think that’s why AEW needs to make a serious attempt with Powerhouse Hobbs and Wardlow as a tag team.
Because Hobbs? He is World Championship material. He does have it. He can talk, he has charisma, he can move, he has great power, presence, and poise. But that World Championship is in the tag team division, and it’s up to AEW to find him the right partner. I think it’s Wardlow. If Wardlow isn’t the guy? Maybe it’s Big Bill. Maybe it’s Brody King. Maybe it’s someone not yet in AEW. But it can’t be another Ricky Starks hitting spears at under 200lbs.
Will Hobbs made his first statement in AEW beside Jon Moxley. He was sidelined this year after a match with Jon Moxley for the biggest singles prize he has wrestled for. Jon Moxley and the Death Riders have talked about complacency and pushing guys to their potential because the company failed them. Hobbs isn’t complacent, but he’s absolutely someone who needs to meet his potential now four years into his run in AEW. He just needs fire to compliment his ice.
